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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Dirty Ed
A buddy had a Deering Boston six-string that I played several times - lots of fun and an inspiration to write new songs. He sold it last year at a great price without telling me. I probably would have added it to the collection if I had known.
Looking forward to seeing you again in about a month Jim.
DE
Hi Dirty Ed,
I would suggest for your granddaughter a nice Kala for around that price, you can get a Kala in a normal size or a thin travel size..Another good brand for ukulele is Lanikai, (they make a nice tenor too if you wanted to go to a bigger ukulele).
Personally i play mostly soprano or concert size ukulele`s, concert size being my favourite size.
STRINGS: Often though as well as a good ukulele to begin with, the main thing is getting decent strings put on.......Aquila strings are excellent for ukulele`s.
Thanks Jandle, that's good info.
DE
My youngest grand daughter (12 years old) expressed an interest in learning to play the ukulele. (Her older sister plays piano and brother plays guitar). She got a cheap soprano Amahi for Christmas but is frustrated because it goes out of tune easily and does not sound very good. I've decided to buy her a better soprano uke for her upcoming birthday. I know nothing about the instrument but have been checking youtube videos, looking at ebay price ranges, etc. Do any of you chordie ukulele players have suggestions for a decent instrument in the $100-$150 range?
Thanks,
DE
I suppose the popularity of "sing along" songs depends on the crowd and location. Anyone performing here in the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio better have these songs in their repertoire:
Circle be Unbroken
Wagon Wheel
Pancho and Lefty
Dead Skunk
Fox on the Run
You Ain't Goin Nowhere
Paradise
Rocky Top
Country Roads
Rocky Mountain High
DE
Jen and I just returned from a 10-day camping trip with our new travel trailer. I've probably spent over a thousand nights tent camping on remote ridges and river banks over the years but I've only stayed in a campground about a dozen times so it took a little getting used to the daily routine and nearness to other campers. We spent a couple days in a Tennessee state park, a week at Fort Pickens National Park campground at Pensacola beach and a couple more nights at a state park in northeast Alabama before returning home.
I took along a guitar and played around a fire most evenings. I was joined by a picker one night at Fort Pickens and we played for a couple hours but he was the only other guitar player I ran into during the trip. One evening I was playing alone at my fire when a golf cart pulled up near our site and stopped. I finished playing a song and looked up to see a park ranger sitting in the cart. I thought maybe it was past "quiet" time and she stopped to tell me to quit playing. Instead she complimented me and with a big smile said "THAT'S what camping is all about" before driving off. It made my day.
DE
Bill, your song got me going back through my old "hook book" to resurrect a song idea I had several years ago which is similar but different. One of the employees where I worked mentioned that a certain supervisor was ruthless. Being a "word guy" I wondered if someone can be ruthless can they also be "ruth"? I looked it up and sure enough its a word that means you have empathy for another or feel remorse for something you've done. So thanks to you awakening an old spark I wrote a new song last night. Think of the rhythm/chord progression used in "Mississippi Squirrel Revival"....... It's an AABCCB rhyme scheme like yours but without a chorus.
DE
Ruth
G
I was feeling kinda literary
E
So I perused the dictionary
A D G
To find new words that would impress my friends
G
But little did I know as I looked around
E
That the word that I finally found
A D G
Would bring my ten-year marriage to an end
Em
That word was "ruth" (with a little r)
G
A word I could use at the local bar
A D D7
A word they'd think an educated man had borrowed
G
A short word that just rolls off the tongue
E
That would impress bar patrons old and young
A D G
And replace "remorse", "pity","grief" or "sorrow"
A week went by and to my consternation
I couldn't slip that word into a conversation
I was growing testy and acting like a jerk
My wife asked what was wrong with me
I yelled "shut up and let me be"
Then slammed the door and hurried off to work
At the office I fretted and I stewed
And felt sorry about our little feud
And my angry reply that my wife had heard.
But I felt better as the day wore on
Because I knew when I got home
I'd have my chance to use my new-found word
......guitar riff........
I hurried home but was still a little late
Rushed up the walk and slammed the gate
And burst into the house without a warning
Grabbed my wife and said "Babe, I gotta say
That I've been feeling ruth all day
..............pause.............
G D G
She filed for divorce the next morning
Hey Bill, Is there a bridge or other changes after the second verse? Not hearing the song, just reading the lyrics/chords I see changes in the rhyme scheme and rhythm structure in various places. The chorus rhyme structure is a consistent 7-line AABBCCA for the two chorus sections and ending with a six-line AABBCC structure for the"extra" chorus (nice touch). However the verse structure changes throughout the song. The first two verses are a consistent AABCCB six-line structure but things begin to change - the next verse is a 6-line rhyme scheme AABBCC followed by a 5 line AABCB and then two 4-line AABB sections. Is there also a different chord progression involved with these variances?
As a songwriter, I'm always interested in the thought process used by other writers. Is there a specific reason you varied the rhyme structures and verse lengths?
DE
Why should it go back into the trunk? Song titles aren't copyrighted.
DE
I like covering originals by "unfamous " people,, that way no one can tell your playing it wrong! LOLOLOL
Years ago I tried to find songs that few people had ever heard so that folks that heard me wouldn't know how bad I played and sang covers. It didn't work because invariably there would be someone who had heard the song. So then I began writing my own songs and telling folks that a friend of mine named D.E. Howard had wrote the song (my long-time nickname "Dirty Ed" coupled with my middle name Howard - kinda sounds like an author ....). Finally after a few years I finally owned up to being the writer of the songs I sing, good or bad. I have to admit it is a thrill for someone to ask if I mind them covering a song I've written. I was pulling into a campground in Kentucky several years ago and heard someone playing one of my songs around a fire. I stopped my truck and listened before pulling in to my camp site - words can't describe how awesome the experience was.
Excellent song Jim and fantastic cover Amy.
DE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROGER !!!
I wish you peace, love, insight, relaxation, fun, knowledge, romance, friendship ....... and all that stuff that doesn't cost anything......
DE
Take comfort in knowing that birthdays are good for you - statistics show that people that have the most live the longest.
I'm heading over to check out Girlfriends now!
I just wanted to add here that I've also got a "possible maybe" from Big Jim - shoot, I can't remember his Chordie username - he hasn't been on in a while, BUT I know some of ya know him!
Are you talking about Big Jim from Ashville, Ohio (aka Bass Viking)? Jim and I used to play at some of the same open mics and have fished/camped together. I haven't talked to him for a while. Hope he can make it.
DE
I'd have to agree with NELA, I'm not taking along a $1000 custom guitar to play around a campfire. Over the last 35 years I've owned about a dozen different "river" guitars that I've played at campfires across the country. Usually its a $200-$400 (new) guitar that I've bought used at a good price because it had minor "issues" that I could rework. After a year or two of playing it, I pass it on to a beginner with the stipulation that they pass it on to someone else if they buy a better axe.
For me the "ideal" camping guitar is "00" or "concert" sized so it can fit into a dry bag and be carried in a raft or canoe. Most campfire situations do not require a "boomer" so the smaller body is still loud enough to be heard in the night air. Laminated sides, solid top, smooth frets, straight neck with adjustable truss rod, decent tuners, no ornamentation. (I'd rather be paying for decent wood and components than bling). No on-board tuner that would add to the cost as I'd prefer to just use a "clip-on" that can be used by other pickers that might join in around the fire And finally, cheap enough so that when a drunk falls on it and turns it into kindling I can laugh it off and find another "river guitar".
DE
I am off the whole week of August 7th. Due to my fairly brutal work schedule. 12-14 hours daily, I need to get a full day of rest before returning mondays. Even if I could go 1 1/2 days on the weekend of the 7th, I would be fine with that.
I can sympathize with ya JJJ as most folks don't like working long hours. My last 15 working years before I retired was working a rotating 12.5 hour shift (0630 to 1900 or 1830 to 0700) with a 45 minute drive each way, which made for a 14 hour day (or night). We worked 4 nights, got 4 days off, worked 3 days and 3 nights (back to back) three days off, worked 4 days and then 7 days off. (basically worked 14 days and were off 14 days during every 28 day period) Most of the people I worked with didn't like it and wanted to work a a normal 40 hour day shift work week. Although I sympathized with them because most employees could never adjust to the schedule I thrived on it. For some reason, only 4-5 hours sleep a day never bothered me. When new management took over and decided that an engineer was no longer needed on each shift I retired the first day I was scheduled for "banker's hours" 8 hour per day / 40 hour per week.
DE
Yeah Amy, I plan to be there. I'm about 90% sure that I'll be accompanied by Jen and our dogs. It'll be another chance to use our new camper. I just received a 2016 brochure from Oneida Pines campground yesterday and plan to stay there again. If something comes up and Jen can't tag along I'll just come by myself and tent camp. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again and enjoying your family's hospitality and meeting JJJ and his crew. I'll miss seeing Roger again and hearing his repertoire of ballads.
DE
I love Hank Sr and Hank III. Hank Jr. would be driving a bus if his last name wasn't Williams.
Hey Jerome, I'm just wondering why you feel that way about Hank Jr. He had 21 gold albums, was the Academy of Country Music entertainer of the year in 87,88 and 89 and was the ""music of choice" for me and my kayaking buddies when heading to class IV/V whitewater runs in the southeast during the 80's. Sure, when he was a kid his mom and family tried to promote him as "little Hank", but after he recovered from his climbing accident and began writing his own tunes he became a force in country music.
DE
Okay, one more. And if you don't get this one, I'm hanging up my whatever they call those things they attach to de TATAS to mek you YODEL, Schweinhund!!!!!
An old bluegrass gospel song written and played by the Stanley Brothers. We sang it in church when I was a kid. The "Over in the Gloryland" lyrics are easy to understand even when sung in German.
The first one was written by country legend Harlan Howard. I remember the Ray Price version the best, although "Heartaches by the Numbers" has been recorded by a lot of folks. The version sung by Guy Mitchell that Roger mentioned made it to #1 on the country charts back in the late 50's/early 60's.
DE
That sounds about how fishing goes for Roger and Me, Dirty Ed. It's not too uncommon for us to wind up at our favorite winery sipping on some red wine and fishing their lake.
I don't lake fish much but I do get an occasional case of the "reds" and I've been known to whine a lot......
Englishman John and Hersch are trying to put together a river smallies gathering in VA (probably on the Doah). If it works out maybe we can wet a line together this summer.
DE
The small, spit-across local stream that my buddy Doug and I anticipate floating each spring was expected to be perfect today. We've fished it as low as 70 cfs and as high as 350 cfs as anything above that flow flushes out the eddies and makes it hard to float and fish. Ideally the flow should be about 140-170 cfs. Today the air temps were to hit mid 70's, water temps approach mid 50's and the flow had been holding at 160 cfs since yesterday afternoon - absolutely the perfect conditions to thumb some big smallmouth bass while floating through one of the most beautiful rock gorges in southern Ohio. It was also the only stream in a 40 mile radius that wasn't running several times its normal flow due to recent rains.
I woke up before daylight, loaded my yak and gear into the back of my truck, added a few extra 5" green pumpkin grubs to my tackle bag and waited on Doug to call while I made some breakfast. He called and told me he was expecting a guy to stop by to pick up a kayak he'd sold and he would be about an hour later than usual. I couldn't stand it and made the 1/2 hour drive to the take-out where we usually meet, thinking I'd also drive to a couple of the access points and check the flow before he arrived. When I got to the takeout there were several vehicles parked there as well as at the place we normally put in. I didn't see any boaters but the stream appeared to be a lot higher than the expected 160 cfs. I went back downstream and waited for Doug to show up. A few more vehicles pulled in and I found out that a whitewater paddling club from Dayton had requested a 900 cfs release from the dam so they would have a good level to teach their newbies to play in the small rapids in the gorge. The release would last most of the day and ruin any chance to fish.
When Doug pulled up and I told him the story, we must have looked like two 8 year-olds that had just been told that Christmas was cancelled. The good news was Doug treated me to lunch at a local diner before we went back home. He's planning to take a couple mid-week vacation days if the levels are good next week. Hopefully we can still get on the creek while the conditions are perfect.
DE
Back in the mid 80's I occasionally played with a couple buddies at a local restaurant/bar called the "Cellar". I only played during the winter months because in the summer any time I had a free day or two I preferred to spend it kayaking whitewater rivers and do my guitar picking at creek-side campfires. I had already played a few times during the winter and in mid-February I got a call and was asked if I could play the first weekend in March. I agreed, forgetting that the evening I was asked to play happened to be my 35th birthday. I finally remembered a day later but decided not to back out of the gig. It wasn't great pay, 50 bucks and all the beer I could drink to play from 9 to midnight. If there was a good crowd, another $30 could be made for playing another hour until the place closed.
We (me, a bass player and a banjo player) arrived at the bar, set up the PA and was checking sound when a couple kayakers I knew from the Cincinnati area came in. I asked why they drove 100 miles to hear us play and they said the word was out in the paddling community that it was my birthday, I was playing at the Cellar and there wasn't much else for paddlers to do on March 1st anyway. I told the bartender to get them each a drink on me and keep a tab so I could settle up at the end of the evening. A few minutes later another half dozen or so kayakers and rafters came in and I bought each of them their first drink and had it put on my tab. I had a pretty good repertoire of original "river" songs and was belting then out during the evening as more paddlers from Ohio, Ky and West Virginia came in and joined the local restaurant patrons. Each of their first drinks was on me. As the evening wore on and the adult beverages flowed, we also began playing some bluegrass tunes as drunk patrons sang, clogged and danced on tables. The bar owner asked if we could play an extra hour as the party was still going strong. By this time I also had tipped a few too many and was slurring words to the delight of the crowd.
Finally it was time for the bar to close and it was over. When they totaled up the tab against my pay, I owed the bar four dollars.............
DE
So how did your first fishing trip go TF?
From the time you posted this my buddy Doug and I made 4 attempts to get on our local streams but each time there was a rain or snow storm a couple days before we planned to go and the creeks were too flooded to fish. I did some floats, but didn't even bother to bring along a rod.
Finally today we made our first fishing trip. I checked my fishing diary and this is the latest "first float" I've done in over 15 years. (In fact in most years I've already been out a dozen times by mid April.) The two streams we normally like to fish were still swollen so we found one with a decent flow rate about 25 miles away. We've floated it a couple times before but not in the last two years. Like many of the small streams in my area you can easily cast from one bank to the other. Launched our kayaks about 0930 and got to the takeout about 1430. It was a beautiful day and wildlife was active - saw an eagle, a mink, a muskrat, a couple dozen fat squirrels, 8 deer (had a couple wade across the stream in front of us) dozens of mated Canadian geese and pairs of ducks, and we passed under two heron rookeries - one with 10 nests and the other with 15. Air temps hit the 70's while the water temp barely made 50. Fishing was slow - I ended up with two-16" and one 17" smallmouth bass while Doug boated an 18" smallie and 24" drum. Still, it was a great day.
DE
Yeah Joe, we woke up to 3" of snow this morning. 20 miles north of here they didn't get anything. Last week I was running around in a tee shirt.
Oh well........
DE
Merle was one of the greatest song writers to ever hit country music and has been my songwriting hero and provided the inspiration to write my own style of "storytelling" songs. As he said in an interview in Time magazine in 1974 - "Country songs are just journalism put to music".
Rest easy old timer.
DE
Cool !! Congrats Graham !!
Good lookin' crew ya got there Scott.
DE
Roger, that smile tells it all - you look like you just found out that granny's apple pie won best of show at the county fair!
Whenever I see a Ric, my mind drifts back to the days when McQuinn's jangly Ric 12-string set the tone for the Byrds unique sound.
DE
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Dirty Ed
